Two dynamics frame the 2024 presidential election in the United States. Democratic backsliding refers to the declining robustness of democratic practices in the United States (and other countries) in the last two decades. This is the object of many studies in comparative politics. ‘Democratic weakness’ points to the difficulty of the Democratic Party and its allies in winning a national election that should be an easy victory. Democrats have won five of the last eight presidential elections and face a candidate who lost in 2020 and struggles to stay out of jail. The economy is decent and sometimes better. Ongoing foreign policy crises have not meant large-scale direct U.S. military action, a la Iraq in the early 2000s. Many Democratic positions poll well, such as abortion. How should we explain Democratic weakness – even if that party manages to win the election? In answering this question, we will be skeptical of accounts that reduce Democratic problems to failures to adopt the analyst’s preferred political stance. This course is open to M.A. and Ph.D. students in Politics, and to graduate students in other programs at NSSR and TNS.